by David Schroeder MD, is the result of forty years of psychiatric practice in which the author was willing to let his patients teach him. Dr. Schroeder came to see that what he learned in top-notch academic medicine did not work to help patients as well as what he learned from them during those decades in medical practice.
Eschewing the methods of motivational speakers, psychoanalysts, self-esteem promoters, feel-good therapists, and personal advisors, he gets down to the specific thought patterns that cause blame, shame, depression, guilt, and anxiety and teaches thinking as it would be if we had not been taught in our nascency that we must be better than we are to prevent grief, sadness, and fear.
The book is a combination of memoir about how the author learned what he learned and how-to manual imparting joy and well-being. It is filled with anecdotes, stories, and parables. Though often sarcastic and even salacious, it is always completely serious. It is amusing, although its aim is to better the lives
of readers, not entertain them.
Breaking Blame
is different from
self-help guides
to happiness
"
in that I am not a young idealist or a researcher or a mid-career professional. I am an old man at the end of my career, at the end of my life, looking back a half century at what patients told me, with long term follow-up, actually worked to allay suffering."
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